Author: friendsofmycenaegardens1

If you’d like to see the gardens ‘in action’ come along on the afternoon of Sat 6th October from 2pm where there will be some Friends of Mycenae Gardens working in the gardens to keep them tidy. You can still join in if you don’t feel energetic – Mark’s listed a few options below but I’d also add ‘bringing the workers some tea’. All abilities welcome 🙂

To all Friends …
The next ‘planting day’ is Saturday 6 October. It does not last all day – just a couple of hours from 2pm.

The plan is to repair some ‘post and rope’ fences, replace some plants that expired in the recent heat, spread fertiliser on what is left of the lawn, plant hundreds of bulbs in hope for the spring and to carry out some weeding of the shrub beds. We also need to clear some ivy from the Dell.

This is quite a list. We may not get through all of it, but to have a chance we need your help. Please come along. Bring gloves, trowels and secateurs if you can. If you are not keen on any of these jobs, just come along to chat, and perhaps take the odd picture for the website or newsletter.

Incidentally, the committee has for some time been short of gardening expertise. We are putting out a call for knowledgeable gardeners to help identify work that needs doing as and when the need arises (i.e. not just in the planting days), and to help us describe the work on the website or social media along with any instructions that might be needed, so as to allow members of the Friends group to carry out such work in whatever time they can spare, at a time of their choosing. If you think you could be that knowledgeable gardener, please get in touch. We shall plant a bulb in your honour.

What a great day at PARKSfest today! We’ve uploaded the photos we took, including some painted rocks, to our Facebook page (you’ll need to log in to see them) but have added them here too for those without Facebook. We hope you’ll share some of yours. If you want to sign up and become a Friend of Mycenae Gardens (it’s free) here’s the link.

Following earlier postponement, Saturday 24 March will now be our first volunteer day of 2018. We invite you to come and meet with other helpers in the gardens and to join in with any of the following planned activities:

Coming to meet and talk with others who share a love of Mycenae Gardens.

Planting a new array of shrubs and flowers in the bed in front of Mycenae House, which we began preparing in the last volunteer day. We will dig and prepare the holes and then plant and water in the new arrivals based on a planting scheme recently agreed by the Friends of Mycenae Gardens Committee members.

Roping off a small area of shrubs identified by teachers from the Greenwich Steiner School where footfall has been causing to damage, so allowing the area to recover.

Replacing protective stakes and ropes which had been removed/ pulled out from around the refurbished shrub beds

Helping with general tidying and maintenance in the gardens.

No knowledge of gardening is required – only a willingness to help and to meet with other volunteers.

What to do if you are coming

Please bring any of the following, depending on how you plan to help:

gardening gloves

a fork

a spade

a garden trowel

secateurs

clothes which you would be prepared to get a little muddy

willingness to share or organise tea and coffee.

Where and when to meet?

We will meet in the gardens just in front of Mycenae House from 2pm. The volunteer work will be happening until 4pm but you can drop in and stay for just part of this time if you prefer – even if you just come to say hello.

On Saturday 14 October there is a chance to come and join volunteers in the gardens. Why not come along and meet others who share an interest in the gardens and to lend a hand with any of the following planned activities:

Helping to prepare and plant a bed in front of Mycenae House. The current bed has become dominated with some large shrubs and we are planning to re-plant and refurbish the area.

Help planting bulbs for display in Spring 2018

Help with other maintenance around the gardens

Coming to meet and talk with others who share a love of the gardens.

No knowledge of gardening is required – only a willingness to help and to meet with other volunteers.

What to do if you are coming

Please bring any of the following, depending on how you plan to help:

gardening gloves

a fork

a spade

a garden trowel

secateurs

clothes which you would be prepared to get a little muddy

willingness to share or organise tea and coffee.

Although not required, it would be useful if you were to send us an email to let us know if you plan to attend this volunteer session, so we know roughly how many may attend.

Where and when to meet?

We will meet in the gardens just in front of Mycenae House from 10am. The volunteer work will be happen until midday but you can drop in and stay for just part of this time if you prefer – even if you just come to say hello.

Our 2017 Annual General Meeting will be held at 7.00pm on Wednesday 22 March. At that meeting 3 current members of the committee will retire and we are actively looking for new people to join the committee to replace them.

About joining the committee

The gardens currently belong to, and are managed by, Greenwich Council. There are currently 30 parks or gardens with Friends groups in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and the council works with each group to manage and develop ‘their’ park or gardens. The Friends of Mycenae Gardens was formed to work with the council to protect and promote these gardens as a park that fosters the natural environment, wildlife, woodland and open space for the benefit of the whole community.

Those of the community who use the gardens value it for a variety of reasons, and often have different views on how the gardens should be used or improved. An important part of the group’s role is to balance gather and reconcile the views of all users of the gardens so that we can present a consensus to the council in relation to the way the gardens are managed and developed. Committee members play an important role in ensuring that this is achieved.

What do I need to bring?

Another fantastic group of GoodGym volunteers helped us out in the gardens. Amy, Thomas, Ben, Lucy and Sarah signed up for yet more spreading of mulch with Shirley and wrote a report here. Thank you yet again GoodGym.

We are grateful again to volunteers from GoodGym who came to Mycenae Gardens to help aerating the grounds beneath the Plane trees and spreading protective mulch. Thank you Sarah, Grace, Ben, Anna, Alethea, Ivo and Alex. Thanks also to Mark, Ann and Eileen for joining in with the GoodGym volunteers.